A1 Comms recruits A-team for growth

Mobile phone retailer A1 Comms is creating a board of directors as it launches a major push for growth in the UK and overseas in 2013.

The move follows rapid growth over the past 12 months, which has seen profits triple year-on-year and connections double to more than 200,000. The company is forecasting another 337,000 new connections in 2013.

The management restructuring sees founder and MD Paul Sisson [above, right] take the role of CEO, with commercial director Stuart Joce [above, left] promoted to group MD. Sisson will focus on looking for new business opportunities while Joce will oversee the delivery of a major plan for growth in the UK and overseas over the next two years.

The Alfreton-based company, which owns Buymobilephones.net, Affordablemobiles.co.uk and the Go Mobile retail franchise estate, has also taken on Steve Rhodes, former head of Three UK’s and Three Australia’s online businesses. He will take responsibility for A1 Comms’ digital brands, spearheading plans to expand the company’s online business overseas. One of his first tasks will be to launch A1 Comms’ new mobile phone website Phones.co.uk next month.

The company will also recruit a financial director and an MD to lead its Retail Solutions division, which includes Go Mobile and A1 Comms’ Asda and Sainsbury’s supply contracts. Both appointments are expected to be announced by the end of the month.

Other new board directors include A1 Comms commercial manager Adam Chadwick who becomes commercial director. Chadwick will head up network relationships and the commercial delivery of the company’s growth plan. A1 Comms’ operation manager Simon Ryan will become operations director, overseeing IT, procurement, contact centres and supply chain. Tonia Baldwin also joins the board, retaining her current title of corporate sales director.

The company is also planning to take on at least 50 new staff across all departments this year, expanding into a third office this month. It will also open a new warehouse in Alfreton next month, which will provide a ten-fold increase in rack space.

Joce said: ‘We have a specific growth plan running to 2015, which we launched last year, and we are now in the process of putting together a board to deliver the rest of that plan...To an extent we are playing catch-up since our performance is ahead of expectations and so these appointments will help us prepare for further expansion.’